Platform. The everyday portal for sharing knowledge and intelligence on sustainability across Greater Manchester.

What value is a plan if it doesn't lead to action? Influenced by stakeholders, compilation of a GM project database and the consideration of priorities and programme targets, the GM Climate Change Strategy Implementation Plan puts in place attainable levels of activity and targets to ensure Greater Manchester tackle the opportunities and challenges presented by climate change for the period up to 2020.

Responsible for piloting emerging Government low carbon policies, energy supply and demand initiatives, & developing and putting in place the delivery arrangements for Greater Manchester's Climate Change Strategy and other environmental priorities, the Low Carbon Hub aims to provide a 'one-stop-shop' on the low carbon agenda in Greater Manchester. The Hub Board meets four times per year and steers five thematic and two cross-cutting sub groups, to progress our priorities.

How can we achieve true sustainability in Greater Manchester? The central theme of Caroline Downey's essay is that the individualistic, economic growth paradigm has not worked, cannot work, and is threatening our very existence. Without a fundamental shift in governance and ideology, a sustainable future for humans is difficult to imagine.

In Greater Manchester, growth is the zeitgeist, consumerism the culture, business as usual the norm and climate armageddon the inevitable destination. However, this very personal perspective from Walter Menzies concludes with a positive proposal.

From the archive: Beth Perry and Alan Harding argue that Hulme in Manchester may have come out of intensive care, but to be truly considered a success story, it must deliver well-being to all its residents. Originally published in New Start magazine, 24 January 2003.

From the archives: In New White Shirts (first published in IE in 2002), Michael Taylor looks at the businesses that are fundamentally changing the way in which they work, incorporating corporate social responsibility into the heart of their operations. Additional interviews by Steve Connor.

From the archives: a piece from Industrial Evolution in 2002 on how theatre, art and entertainment for the masses are sweeping aside the derelict wastelands left by the Industrial Revolution in the twin cities of Liverpool and Manchester.

From the archives: Written to mark ten years since the first Earth Summit in Rio, this 2002 article from the magazine Industrial Evolution looks at the inspiration the Rochdale Pioneers gave to modern-day advocates of sustainability.